Most inflatable objects are provided with a valve to permit the entry of air or other gas into the tire, ball, or the like to inflate the same. Some objects such as tennis balls, hand balls, squash balls, racket ball balls and other relatively thick-skinned balls are not provided with any valve and instead are generally considered leakproof enough to be used without further inflation. Unfortunately, in many sports and particularly in tennis, the ball will lose internal pressure by the passage of gas molecules through the wall of the ball. The internal pressure often decreases to an extent that the rebound of the ball is reduced and the ball must either be discarded or used in its unsatisfactory condition of inflation.
In the particular instance of tennis balls, various approaches have been taken to help reduce the tendency of tennis balls to partially deflate. First, almost all tennis balls are packed in a pressurized can so that before the can is opened, there is little or no tendency for air to migrate from the inside of the ball to the outside. Numerous devices are commercially available which will permit the user to re-pressurize the can or to insert the balls in another container which may then be pressurized to reduce deflation in periods of non use. Such devices, however, are not capable of reinflating a deflated ball in a reasonable time but merely can reduce the tendency of the balls to deflate.
There is thus the need for a device to reinflate a deflated tennis ball.